Dark Souls was notoriously one of the most challenging games of 2011. It killed players over and over, sometimes rewarding patience and determination in the face of death and failure with yet more death and failure.

The biggest thing Dark Souls (and spiritual ancestor Demon's Souls) has going for it is that…
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And if players felt like the game was trolling them? Well, they may have been right. At least, about one certain thing.

In an interview withIGN, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki explained outright what the deal with the pendant is. And the answer is: he was having fun on the audience.

The pendant is an optional starting gift when a player begins Dark Souls. It doesn't actually do anything, but Miyazaki said in an interview once that if he were playing, he'd choose the pendant or nothing at all. Players, naturally, then drove themselves and each other a bit crazy trying to suss out any hidden properties, and to follow the reasoning.

But the actual reasoning? As Miyazaki told IGN: "When it comes to the pendant, I actually had a little bit of an intention to play a prank."

Perhaps getting to hear the anguished cries of players worldwide isn't such a farfetched motive for the man who made the game that had what felt like the entirety of Twitter yelling unanimous obscenities for month.